Long John Silver (Treasure Island) | Villains Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Long John Silver (Treasure Island) 37,032pages on Click To Help Darkseid! Darkseid has declared that this article requires immediate Cleanup in order to meet a higher standard. Help improve this article by improving formatting, spelling and general layout - least it fall victim to an Omega Effect Evil-doer Leadership, scheming, fighting skills, cunning Hobby Type of Villain Pirate Long John Silver is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Contents [ show ] Profile In Treasure Island, Long John Silver is a pirate who was quartermaster under the notorious Captain Flint . Long John Silver had a pet parrot called Captain Flint, often seen sitting on his shoulder where she would nibble on seeds. A quartermaster on a pirate ship ranked higher than any officer except the captain himself, and could veto the captain's decisions whenever the ship was not in a battle. The quartermaster was elected by the crew and one of his tasks was to lead the boarding party from the quarterdeck during boarding attacks.

Silver claims to have served in the Royal Navy and lost his leg under "the immortal Hawke". "His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird. He was very tall and strong, with a face as big as a ham - plain and pale, but intelligent and smiling." He claims to have been the only man whom Flint ever feared. Like many of Stevenson's characters, there is more than a modicum of duality in the character; ostensibly Silver is a hardworking and likable seaman, and it is only as the plot unfolds that his villainous nature is gradually revealed. His relationship with Jim Hawkins, the novel's protagonist, is interesting, as he serves as a mentor and eventually father-figure to Jim, creating much shock and emotion when it is discovered that he is in charge of the mutiny, and especially when Jim must confront and fight him later on.

Although willing to change sides at any time in the interests of his own survival, Silver has compensating virtues: he is wise enough to pay attention to money management, in contrast to the spendthrift ways of most pirates, and is physically courageous despite his disability; for instance, when Flint's cache is found to be empty, he coolly stands his ground against five grown men despite having only Hawkins to back him. Historians have noted that Silver's account of his life experiences during the first half of the 18th century is at variance with the known history of the historical figures he mentions, and that Silver is either exaggerating the range and scope of his exploits for the benefit of Jim Hawkins or for potential pirates he is trying to recruit, or his memory is faulty. When Silver escapes at the end of the novel, he takes "three or four hundred guineas" of the treasure with him, thus becoming one of only two former members of Captain Flint's crew to get his hands on a portion of the recovered treasure; a separate cache of bar silver is apparently left on the island.

(The repentant maroonee Ben Gunn is the other, but he spends all 1,000 pounds in nineteen days.) Jim's own ambivalence towards Silver is reflected in the last chapter, when he speculates that the old pirate must have settled down in comfortable retirement: "It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small." Stevenson's portrayal of Silver has greatly influenced the modern iconography of the pirate. Silver has a parrot, named Captain Flint in mockery of his former captain, who generally perches on Silver's shoulder, and is known to chatter pirate phrases like "Pieces of Eight," and "Stand by to go about." Silver uses the parrot as another means of gaining Jim's trust, by telling the boy all manner of exciting stories (many of them likely fake) about the parrot's buccaneer history. "'Now that bird,' Silver would say, 'is, may be, two hundred years old, Hawkins - they live forever mostly, and if anybody's seen more wickedness it must be the devil himself. She's sailed with England- the great Cap'n England, the pirate.

She's been at Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello ... She was at the boarding of the Viceroy of the Indies out of Goa, she was, and to look at her you would think she was a babby." He is married to a woman of African descent, whom he trusts to manage his business affairs in his absence and to liquidate his Bristol assets when his actions make it impossible for him to go home. He confides in his fellow pirates, that he and his wife plan to rendezvous after the voyage to Skeleton Island is complete and Flint's treasure is recovered, at which point Silver will retire to a life of luxury. According to Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-life friend William Henley, a writer and editor. Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "...a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet".

In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island Stevenson wrote: "I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely taken from you". Modern portrayals Actors who have portrayed Long John Silver in the various motion picture adaptations of Treasure Island include Wallace Beery, Ivo Garrani, Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Eddie Izzard, Lance Henriksen, Robert Newton, Anthony Quinn, Tim Curry, Jack Palance, Brian Murray, Oleg Borisov, Boris Andreyev and British actor Ivor Dean in a televised version of the novel. Robert Newton followed up his two Long John Silver movies with an Australian-produced TV series. BBC1 has presented the story four times, with Anthony Quinn, Bernard Miles, Peter Vaughan and Alfred Burke, respectively, as Long John Silver. In the Soviet animated film Treasure Island of 1988, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan provided the voice talent for John Silver. Ivor Dean played the character in an acclaimed European 4-part mini-series in 1966.

He intended to reprise the role in another series with more adventures of Silver. He began writing it with director Robert S. Baker, but his sudden death in 1974 stopped all further plans. In 1985, this script was used as foundation for a Disney 10-part TV-series called Return to Treasure Island, starring Brian Blessed in the role of Long John Silver. John Silver was also the protagonist in Björn Larsson's fictional autobiography of the character, Long John Silver: the True and Eventful History of My Life of Liberty and Adventure As a Gentleman of Fortune and Enemy to Mankind ( ISBN 1-86046-538-2 respectively 91-7263-285-2). The novel was first published in Sweden in 1995. Silver is the main character in Silver—My Own Tale As Told By Me With A Goodly Amount Of Murder by Edward Chupack ( ISBN 978-0-312-53936-8 ). In popular culture John Silver (left) is portrayed as a cyborg in Disney's Treasure Planet.

In anime and manga The 1978 Japanese series Takarajima, he is portrayed as a tall blond man. In film and television John Silver is depicted in L'ile aux tresors, a movie by Alain Berberian; the cast includes Gerard Jugnot and Alice Taglioni. Long John Silver in USSR movie Treasure Island. In 1988, in USSR movie Treasure Island, Long John Silver was voiced by Armen Jigarxanyan. Tim Curry portrayed Long John Silver in the 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island. Long John Silver is voiced by Jim Cummings in the movie The Pagemaster. Long John Silver as he appear in The Pagemaster. The 2002 Disney film Treasure Planet, an animated science fiction adaptation of Treasure Island, depicts John Silver as a cyborg, voiced by Brian Murray. Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean is similar to Long John Silver. He owned a monkey named after his previous captain Jack Sparrow, and was referred to as the "one-legged man" in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

In the Animated UK Series, The Legends of Treasure Island, Long John Silver, who is portrayed as a fox in that series, was voiced by Richard E. Grant in Season 1 and Rob Brydon in Season 2. In literature Long John Silver is a Franco-Belgian comics series written by Xavier Dorison, illustrated by Mathieu Laufray and published by Dargaud in French and Cinebook in English. John Silver, a fictional space pirate with mechanical leg who appears in the Italian comic book Nathan Never, was inspired by Long John Silver. According to J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, Captain Hook was the only man whom Silver ever feared. Flint and Silver is a prequel novel to Treasure Island written by John Drake. In music The rock band Jefferson Airplane had a song and 1972 album named Long John Silver. Jethro Tull's song "Mother Goose" (on the Aqualung album) references the title character as well as four and twenty laborers, concluding with the line, "and I don't believe they knew that I was Long John Silver." In other uses A restaurant chain, Long John Silver's, is named after the character. Further reading Elwin, Malcolm.

(1939). Old gods falling. New York: The Macmillan Company. Karg, Barbara; Spaite, Arjean. (2007). The everything pirates book : a swashbuckling history of adventure on the high seas, Avon, Mass. : Adams Media. ISBN 978-1-59869-255-6 Prince, Alison. (1994). Kenneth Grahame : an innocent in the Wild Wood, London : Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-85031-829-6 Stevenson, Robert Louis; Colvin, Sidney, Sir. (1899). Letters to his family and friends, New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. Long John Silver Long John Silver Treasure Hunting Long John Silver Long John Silver from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) is probably one of the most famous of all fictional pirates. With his parrot and his peg leg he is in many ways the archetypal pirate. He's so well known that he's even given his name to a quick-service seafood chain with over 1200 units worldwide.

What makes Silver so interesting is not just his physical characteristics but also his character. He's undoubtedly an evil scoundrel who will switch sides whenever it sits his purpose. Yet at the same time has an almost entrancing charisma - at one point early in the story Jack comments: "I would have gone bail for the innocence of Long John Silver". As the book continues, Jack discovers the truth about this dangerous man. Who Is Long John Silver? Silver is introduced into Treasure Island as a "retired" ex-pirate. He used to sail with the infamous Captain Flint, for whom he served as ship's quatermaster. It was apparently said that Silver was the only person of whom Flint was afraid. Given Flint's reputation as "the bloodthirstiest buccaneer that sailed" that tells you a lot about Silver! Long John Silver has a peg leg which he claimed he "lost it in his country's service, under the immortal Hawke". In reality he lost the leg on board Flint's ship, during the same battle in which "old Pew lost his deadlights". This is one of the lies that Silver uses to trick his way onto the Treasure Island expedition as ship's cook.

Silver wants Flint's treasure for himself and attempts to organise a mutiny on board the ship - which is only foiled by Jim who overhears his scheming. The Parrot The pirate's parrot has become a standard part of the fictional pirate image - no self respecting pirate novel or movie today would be without one! Silver's parrot is called Flint, after the old captain. This we can assume was not intended as a mark of respect! The bird squawks out Pieces of Eight incessantly. Adventures In the 1950s actor Robert Newton starred as Long John Silver in vintage TV show. In this series he is a reformed character - sort of. Some of the episodes from the series are available on DVD to buy online. Pirate Parrot - TV Tropes Pirate Parrot You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Diabolical Masterminds have the Right-Hand Cat . Pirate Captains have the Pirate Parrot. Expect these colorful feathered companions to be chatty and demand crackers . Pirate Parrots usually ride on the shoulder of their pirate owner . The parrot may or may not: Be named "Polly".

Ask for crackers, "Polly wants a cracker, Polly wants a cracker". Say something about "pieces of eight" (a Spanish dollar or piastre — a large silver coin worth eight reals). In Real Life , it is not known if many pirates actually kept parrots for pets. Parrots are high-maintenance animals that serve no benefit on a ship (unlike, for example, cats, which keep the vermin population down). However, there are records of the occasional (non-pirate) Caribbean sailor keeping parrots and even monkeys as pets, so it's not too unlikely. The whole concept of a pirate and his parrot companion likely started with Treasure Island . And parrots in Real Life do naturally prefer to stand on a person's shoulder. It's also worth noting that at a certain point of time pet parrots commanded huge prices in Europe, so it is not inconceivable for a sailor wanting to settle down to trade in several parrots as a retirement benefit of sorts, probably leaving one to himself — which is probably where it all started. Expect some amount of Misplaced Wildlife .

Cockatoos, for example, come from Australia and Indonesia, and would be far less likely on the shoulder of a Caribbean pirate than a macaw or Amazon of Central and South America. Then again, most animated parrots are some strange conglomeration of psittacine characteristics rather than realistic; macaw-shaped and colored, Amazon-sized, with a cockatoo crest. features a pirate captain's parrot, who begins saying less-than-complimentary things about the crew, which puts the captain in hot water with them. Anime & Manga Captain Harlock , as a proud Space Pirate , owns not a parrot but a strange alien bird — with black feathers, a long beak and a thread-thin neck — that pretty much cover the same role, up to mimicking human speech and sometimes riding on his shoulder. On Cowboy Bebop , Vicious has an exotic bird perched on his right shoulder most of the time. This only heightens his mystique (and overall evil aura). It's a cormorant (a kind of sea bird that has acidic droppings and a nasty temper). This, combined with the fact that he blows it up in one of the final episodes, probably does say something about Vicious .

It's inspired by Harlock's bird, noted above.note Truth in Television : Cormorants are trainable to a certain extent, and some fishermen in Asia use them as pretty much an aquatic equivalent of hunting hawks. Having one would probably be more useful to a pirate than a parrot. In the Pokï¿½mon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea movie, the pirate villain "The Phantom" had a Chatot (parrot Pokémon) on his shoulder. Amazingly, One Piece has, up to yet, averted this, despite being all about pirates. And considering the series' track record, if one ever does show up, it will most likely be the single most awesome parrot ever seen. The closest to this trope thus far is Doma's, one of Whitebeard's New World allies, trained gun-using Monkey. There's also Rob Lucci's pet bird, who speaks entirely for him while he's undercover while Lucci passes himself off as being mute. Lucci isn't a pirate, though he is a criminal after Spandam throws him under the bus, but as a marine assassin he's probably done his share of sailing.

The manga Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam gives The Captain a robot parrot as part of their fully embracing the "pirate" part of Space Pirate . Said parrot spouts random lines that reference older Gundam works, leading to the theory that it was made from Amuro Ray's Team Pet and Gundam Series Mascot Haro. Comic Books In Lullaby, Jim Hawkins gained a parrot (with an absurdly large beak) sometime before his captain booted him from the ship. Its name is "Crew"; he's got a pegleg and an eyepatch, and carries Jim's flag on his back. In Y: The Last Man , buxom captain Kilina prefers a female capuchin monkey to a parrot, because birds are too cliché. Batman foe Cap'n Fear had a robotic parrot that randomly recorded and repeated phrases spoken near it . Though not a pirate himself, The DCU 's marauding desperado El Papagayo ("The Parrot") was so named for his choice of pet.

In The Skull of Agarash, a graphic novel set in the Lone Wolf world, Captain Khadro, pirate ruler of the Lakuri Isles, has a small winged reptile looking like a tiny dragon as Pirate Parrot. It is in fact a Liganim, the shapeshifting Familiar of a Nadziran, the Black Wizard currently possessing Khadro . Parodied in a José Carioca cover, where José has gone to a costume party dressed as a pirate, but since he is a parrot, he has a small human pirate on his shoulder instead . Deadpool forced Bob to wear a parrot costume and squawk like a parrot during their short stint as pirates. Ruthless modern pirate Mojo in the story "How Daphne lost her Mojo (and got it back!)" in the graphic novel Sex Ed 101 by Enrique Villagran, has a parrot who comments on the action. Matilda in Randomveus has a large pet parrot — that somehow has a mustache. The Black Terror's heroic identity was, in-universe, inspired by a book on pirates, and he wears a costume modeled after a Jolly Roger flag.

The Project Superheroes version of the character has a sidekick called Parrot, who wears a colorful bird costume. In Five Ghosts, there's a brief scene of a sailor discussing his pet parrot. It can't talk, or at least hasn't learned any phrases yet, and he's a little tired of people being so surprised by this. Later another sailor is told by his buddy that he should get a pet parrot, cuz they're good company. Films — Animation Iago from Disney's Aladdin is worth mentioning, even though he's not affiliated with a Pirate... Then in Aladdin and the King of Thieves he goes off with Cassim, Aladdin's long-lost father and former leader of a band of thieves who would occasionally use ships. In Treasure Planet , Long John Silver's pet is a small shapeshifting creature called Morph, who could mimic people in more ways than one. Taken to a ridiculous degree in the direct-to-video movie Tom and Jerry : Shiver Me Whiskers, where each of the three pirate captains have a parrot that matches their color scheme. The red and blue pirate captains talk only in growls, which their parrots then translate.

It's the opposite with the purple pirate, who can speak perfect English, but can't translate his parrot's growling. In Tom and Jerry: The Movie there's Captain Kiddie's parrot Squawk, though Kiddie isn't a pirate and Squawk is just a handpuppet (albeit a seemingly sentient one). The villains of Rio , though technically not pirates, actually both own a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Nigel. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! features Polly, who is really the last dodo. Films — Live-Action Nitro Mike: Arr. Captain Hook and his crew of pirates finally get one in the 2003 film Peter Pan . (This trope had been averted in previous adaptations.) Silent film The Black Pirate makes sure to show a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder as part of the scurvy crew. They also wind up capturing a monkey. Gamebooks In book 4 of the GrailQuest series, Voyage of Terror, while lost in Mythological Ancient Greece, you can meet with Long John Silver — or at least a pirate pretending to be him. He naturally has a parrot on his shoulder.

However, if you decide to fight him, you'll find out that the parrot is a rare breed that's indeed one of the toughest monsters of the book . Literature Older Than Radio : This probably started (as most pirate-related tropes are) with Long John Silver, from Treasure Island , who has a parrot named Captain Flint. Also, Captain Flint's most common phrase is "Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!". The Spellsinger novels have talking animals. In Day of the Dissonance there's a pirate who is a parrot. In Time of the Transference, that character's brother is introduced. He's a pirate parrot accountant . Parodied in the Discworld novel Going Postal with the Reacher Gilt's pirate costume ("That was a Look, wasn't it?") including a parrot (well, a cockatoo) that says "twelve and a half percent" (i.e. 1/8).

The pirate Littlejohn in James Thurber 's The Wonderful O has a parrot that annoys the book's Big Bad (by using words containing the letter "O" ); notable for repeatedly being on the receiving end of the memorable threat, "I'll squck its thrug till all it can whubble is geep!" Although the Free Traders of Andre Norton 's Solar Queen series are not pirates — more of unorthodox merchants, still their captain owns a small alien animal which looks like half-parrot-half-toad. That in addition to more conventional ship-cat. Comic inversion: In the sequence that gave stand-up comedian Mike Hardin's book The Fourteen and a Half Pound Budgie its title, Hardin describes a parakeet that he's supposed to pet-sit as being "so nasty it had a pirate on its shoulder." Invoked in one of Timothy Zahn 's stories, but not with an animal: Marines in Powered Armor wore shoulder-mounted weapons, apparently slaved to aim wherever the wearer's eyes focused, known as "parrot guns". Though pirates are not featured anywhere in the stories, Harold of Bunnicula reads about pirates and wonders whether a "parrot" is an umbrella or a female pirate.

Chester puts him straight. In Swallows and Amazons , Nancy and Peggy's uncle, "Captain Flint", owns a parrot. Nancy and Peggy have often tried to teach it to say "Pieces of eight", and are disappointed that all it will say is "Pretty Polly". Live-Action TV In the Doctor Who serial "The Pirate Planet" (written by Douglas Adams), the space pirate captain has robot parrot with a blaster in its beak (the Polyphase Aviatron). It is destroyed off-screen by K9 (who then returns with the bird in its "mouth". Good dog!) According to Douglas Adams, he submitted that script to the Doctor Who production office, and it was rejected. He later wrote in the robot parrot and re-submitted it, and it was accepted. Monty Python's Flying Circus has sketches with pirates and parrots on their shoulders: A soccer game where one team was made up of Long John Silver impersonators. See it on YouTube here , starting around 1:50. An interviewer slowly turns into a Long John Silver impersonator, complete with quotes. On YouTube here . The "Confuse a Cat" sketch.

The Young Ones episode "Flood" had a cutaway scene with a literal pirate DJ ( Robbie Coltrane ) whose parrot kept making sarcastic remarks. The problem was, he couldn't see where the remarks were coming from because he wore an eyepatch — and he was a cyclops. When his bosun attempts to rightly blame the parrot for an insult, he denies owning one: "I hate the creatures! Horrible, small, furry things, hopping around, breeding and eating carrots!" The Blackadder episode "Potato" guest-stars Tom Baker as Captain Rum . He's not a pirate, but he has a dead parrot lying on his shoulder. Navi the robotic parrot in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger . Also the one responsible for leading the team towards the Greatest Treasure in the Universe through vague clues that only come about after she hits her head on the ceiling. RTL Samstag Nacht (German equivalent of Saturday Night Live ) has the pretty wacky character Märchenman playing with this. He has a parrot as a hand prothese, a hook at the Parrot Pet Position (which he calls "Frank, whom I may call little speaking hook sitting on the shoulder").

And his eyepatch on the mouth, and travels in a man-sized paper ship. Lost in Space episode "The Space Pirate". The title character, named Alonzo P. Tucker, has a robot parrot that sits on his shoulder. Tucker calls it an "esper" (E.S.P., "extra-sensory perception"?). Its eyes glow when it talks and it has psionic powers, such as apportation (teleporting an object from place to place). World's Dumbest... shows that this isn't limited to pirates—one clip features parrots employed by drug cartels to warn them when the police show up. As Wes Denning puts it, "Parrots need to stop hanging out with such shady characters." Pinballs Polly from Black Rose , who gives a random Video Mode reward. Interestingly enough, you can kill her by Button Mashing the Fire button, getting 2 million points in the process. Pro Wrestling After Pirates of the Caribbean took off, Rey Bucanero dressed up Zacarias, one of CMLL 's Mini-Estrellas, as a parrot.

Puppet Shows When John Cleese of Monty Python appeared on The Muppet Show , he was on Pigs in Space as a space pirate and kept bickering with his parrot. He eventually threatened it with, "Quiet! Do you want to be an ex-parrot ?" Muppet Treasure Island spoofed this by having Long John Silver with a pet lobster (though he still went by "Polly" and asked for crackers). This is Lampshaded . Gonzo: I thought pirates had talking parrots as pets. Long John Silver: Talking... parrots? Long John Silver in Treasure Island NEXT Character Analysis We think Long John Silver is the best part of this book. He's totally what we imagine a pirate should be: cunning, sly, peg-legged, with a parrot on his shoulder. There's a reason why he's what we think of when we hear the word "pirate." It's in part because of Long John Silver's popularity as a character that Treasure Island has become the most popular, most enduring pirate novel ever. Long John Silver seems like the classic pirate because he's the character whom all other pirates in popular culture are based on.

He's the granddaddy of them all, and we love him for it. Long John Silver is a quartermaster, which means he handles the ship's food and drink during the voyage. That's also why his fellow pirates call him Barbecue. He's apparently the only man whom the legendary pirate Captain Flint was afraid of ("Flint his own self was feared of me" (11.13)). And since we discover later in the book that Captain Flint managed to singlehandedly kill six of his crew while he was burying his treasure on the island, Long John Silver must be a pretty tough, terrifying guy. But he's first and foremost a con man, so the rage and violence that lie under the surface are hidden underneath a mask that's as smooth as pudding. We see examples over and over again of Long John Silver's incredibly persuasive manner. He tricks Squire Trelawney, who is, OK, not that bright. Still, the fact that a man as interested in duty and class as Squire Trelawney would believe a quartermaster (Long John Silver) over a captain (Captain Smollett) is a sign of how persuasive Long John Silver can be.

We also get to watch him convincing young Dick Johnson to join the pirates while aboard the Hispaniola: You may imagine how I felt when I heard this abominable old rogue [Silver] addressing another in the very same words of flattery as he had used to myself. I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him through the barrel. (11.6) What irks Jim the most about Long John Silver's show of friendliness and respect for Dick Johnson is that he recognizes that Long John Silver has been using the same lines on Jim himself! Jim may be creative and intelligent, but he's no match for the slippery Long John Silver. The thing is, Long John Silver has a lot of qualities that make him appealing to the reader: he's incredibly wily and well-spoken, he's practical and quick to change sides if he needs to, and he's brave. Actually, if you just read the descriptions without thinking "pirate," Long John Silver sounds a lot like an older, smarter version of Jim Hawkins. But of course, he is a pirate (or "gentleman of fortune," as he likes to be called), so he can't totally win out in the end.

Even Stevenson, who is pretty unconventional, can't allow Silver to succeed in his original plan of killing all the non-pirates on board the Hispaniola and making off with all 700 thousand British pounds of treasure. Still, the fact that Long John Silver is so appealing means that it would be equally unsatisfying to the reader for him to be shot down like a dog (like Israel Hands) or marooned on the island (like Tom Morgan). We like him, even if he is a rogue. So the book compromises by letting Long John Silver disappear: he slips away from the Hispaniola with a sack of coins when Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and Jim Hawkins are ashore at the end of the novel. Long John Silver may not get exactly what he wants, but he escapes punishment, as all good tricksters should. Long John Silver's inconclusive ending also leaves open the possibility of future adventures. Who knows where or when this charming, cunning pirate might show up again? After all, there are still bars of silver buried on Captain Flint's island. Treasure Island's open-endedness invites the reader to imagine future adventures using the colorful character of Long John Silver as a stand-in.

By leaving a question mark over his fate, we can dream of meeting him ourselves – and perhaps getting caught up in treasure hunts of our own. Blurring Boundaries Long John Silver is unlike all the other pirates in this novel in two ways: he owns property and he has a wife. (Three if you count the fact that he's smart, and most of the others are total idiots.) Long John Silver is the legitimate owner of a pub in the coastal town of Bristol, and he's married to an African woman. (Stevenson calls this woman a derogatory term for a black woman; we won't reproduce it here because we find it offensive.) Neither of these facts takes up a huge amount of space in the novel, but they indicate something special about Long John Silver: he blurs boundaries. Where the other pirates of the novel drink their fortunes away and go back to begging or crime all too quickly, Long John Silver is planning for the future. He's settling down and trying to become an actual gentleman, not just a gentleman of fortune. Even Israel Hands comments: He's no common man, Barbecue, [...] He had good schooling in his young days, and can speak like a book when so minded.

(10.14) The fact that Long John Silver is an educated property owner not only differentiates him from the other (wasteful, reckless) pirates of the novel. It also suggests untold adventures in his past. What brought an educated man to piracy? How did he get to be sea-cook to Captain Flint? Long John's Silver's intriguingly unclear origins lend a sense of mystery and excitement to the character. For readers of Robert Louis Stevenson's day, Long John Silver's mixed-race marriage would have been a part of that mystery. He is married to an African woman at a time when mixed-race marriages were not common or even considered acceptable. So he lives both inside and outside the law. He owns property (inside the law), but is still a pirate (definitely outside the law). And he is married (inside the law), but to a woman of a different race (socially unacceptable in the 19th century). He breaks rules and challenges the simplistic binaries of good guy/bad guy in multiple ways, which makes him all the more alluring.

The Real Life Long John The character of Long John Silver is based on a real-life buddy of Robert Louis Stevenson's (sadly, not a real-life pirate): William Ernest Henley. Like Stevenson, Henley was a writer of renown. Also like Stevenson, Henley spent much of his life sick with tuberculosis. He even had to have his leg amputated (hence Long John Silver's peg-leg). But Henley never let his illness stop him from participating actively in the literary scene of 19th-century Britain. His stubbornness, courage, and intimidation of lesser minds around him made him a compelling figure, and an excellent model for gentleman pirate Long John Silver. ( Read more about Henley here .) Caesar The Sea Cook, Barbecue Probably the most famous pirate who never was. Long John Silver is one of the main characters in the Book Treasure Island. The book tells of an adventure to an island in the West Indies known by the name Skeleton Island, where the fabled treasure where a great pirate captain is buried. No pirate has inspired more myth and legend than Long John Silver. Even people who have never read Treasure Island, know the name Long John Silver.

Surprisingly, I get at least 2 or 3 people every month or so asking me if Silver was a real person. The answer is a bit confusing. Long John Silver was inspired by Stevenson's real-life friend, William Henley. According to Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's stepson Henley was "..a great, glowing, massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off one's feet". (The real life Henley was not missing a leg but he was crippled. He also wasn't a pirate.) This about as real as Silver gets. The book Treasure Island, creates a wonderful biographical sketch of Silver. We know that he had a common law wife who was a "negress" or woman of African descent. We do not know much more about his wife except she helped him run the Spy-Glass Inn, Silver's tavern in Bristol. Silver mentions that she was to sell the tavern after the Hispaniola and head to a new location somewhere in the Caribbean where he would meet up with her again after the treasure hunt.

Silver was normally called John or Barbecue by the other pirates/mutineers. The good guys in the story, (Captain Smollett, Doctor Livsey, Jim Hawkins, etc) called him Silver. Silver signed on as the cook of the Hispaniola and then went about recruiting most of his former shipmates for the rest of the crew. The good Squire John Trelawney, trust Silver so much that he accepts any man Silver puts forward, this despite the fact that Jim Hawkins had warned Trelawney and Livsey to be on the look out for a one legged man. Stevenson choice of a crippled sailor for a sea cook was on the money as this was done quite often on merchant ships. The story picks up some time after 1722 and more likely sometime in the late 1730s or early 1740s. We find out from the story that Long John was the quartermaster of Captain Flint. Flint was a pirate that was feared by all except Long John Silver. We find out from the story that Flint dies in Savannah, Georgia but are not given an exact year. (Savannah was founded in 1733).

There is a suggestion that Flint was killed by Silver but it is never clearly expressed. The story isn't clear on exactly when Silver lost his leg but it was in battle and he lost it to an explosive cannon shot which not only took off his leg but blinded another pirate known in the story as "Blind Pew". It was some time between the taking of the treasure that was buried by Captain Flint and the Death of Captain Flint that Silver lost his leg. We also know that Long John likes Jim Hawkins and does on several occasions saves the boy's life. In every instance however we also know that it seems he saves the boy in order to save his own. He would like the boy to join him and the pirates and admires Hawkins because of his resource fullness and almost reckless bravery. Other things of interest is that the only thing Silver does fear is hanging. He admits clearly that he has seen people hang and he is afraid to meet such a fate. In the many sequels to Treasure Island Silver tends to be a more gentle rogue who always seems to do good in the end. We know in the end of Treasure Island, he manages to slip away with part of the treasure.

In the end what you can say is he was a ruthless man who would kill anyone who stood between him and what he desired. He led a mutiny but in the end save Hawkins and led the fellow mutineers into a bloody ambush in an attempt to save his own skin. He was a likeable man, he was well educated to some degree (he couldn't navigate a ship on his own), he knew the dangers of strong drink, yet he was a most deadly pirate. Did I mention that he had a pirate named Captain Flint? Sound familiar? In Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl, The crew of the Black Pearl name the monkey Captain Jack, after the former captain, Jack Sparrow. Famous Quotes of Long John Silver: Yer smart as paint: (A person of uncommon intelligence) Shiver my timbers (Something Frightful) "Them's that die'll be the lucky ones" (You'd be better off dead if you put up a fight against me)

Question: What was the name of Long John Silver's parrot?
Answer: CAPTAIN FLINT